In The Spotlight Indigenous Activists in Peruvian Amazon Stand Up Against Government and Extractive Industries
The Peruvian congress this
week voted to repeal the legislative decrees 1090 and 1064, which would have opened up the country’s Amazon territory to increased mining,
oil, gas and hydropower development. The controversial laws were passed
to implement a free trade agreement with the US. For more than two months,
indigenous groups from the Peruvian Amazon have been protesting the government’s
attempts to exploit natural resources found on their territories. After
securing a reversal off the laws, leading indigenous groups have called off the
protests.
The report, entitled A Governance Gap: The Failure of the Korean Government to Hold Korean Corporations Accountable to the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises Regarding Violations in Burma, calls on the OECD Investment Committee to use its authority and mandate to address conflicts and inconsistencies within the Korean NCP and among National NCPs. Read more.
In The Spotlight VICTORY!!: Wiwa v Shell Human Rights Case Settlement Announced
New York, June 8, 2009 — The parties in Wiwa v. Shell have agreed to settle human rights claims charging the Royal Dutch/Shell company, its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC or Shell Nigeria), and the former head of its Nigerian operation, Brian Anderson, with complicity in the torture, killing, and other abuses of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and other non-violent Nigerian activists in the mid-1990s in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. (Read More)
In The Spotlight Reports, Resistance, and Resolutions Make Chevron Shareholders Question Oil Giant’s Vitality May 28, 2009, San Ramon, CA – Chevron shareholders were given a full
account of the true costs of Chevron’s global operations by a delegation of
representatives of Chevron affected communities from the across the nation and
around the world. Outside supporters filled the entryway, closing Chevron’s
front gate with a vibrant rally. Representatives from Nigeria, Ecuador,
Richmond and the Philippines, were joined inside by those representing
communities from Burma, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Alberta to present to shareholders
an alternative annual report, The True Cost of Chevron. “Chevron chose to turn
a deaf ear to the communities who bear the crippling consequences of its
operations,” said Paul Donowitz of EarthRights International.
“Chevron’s complicity in human rights abuses in Burma, the billions in project
revenues flowing to the brutal Burmese military junta who use these profits to
oppress their own people are more evidence that this is a company that cares
for only one thing – its bottom line.”
Many of the teachers and trainers
delivering courses at the EarthRights School of Burma are members of the
School’s own staff, or come from other ERI programs to share their expertise in
campaigning, law, or organizational development. But sometimes the School and
its students also benefit from an incredible pool of educators from diverse
backgrounds and from all over the world.
May 1, 2009 - Today, EarthRights International filed a submission to the UK
Parliament’s Joint Committee for Human Rights detailing recommendations on how
to improve access to justice in UK courts for people who allege abuses of human
rights by UK companies operating abroad. In responding to the Joint Committee’s request for submissions,
EarthRights staff consulted with UK public interest and human rights lawyers to
learn about the barriers to effective litigation on behalf of human rights
plaintiffs in the UK.
EarthRights
recommends that the UK Government:
establish clear legal principles to
attribute abuses by subsidiaries and third parties to their UK parents and
partners
permit “opt-out” class action suits in the case of gross human
rights violations
ease financial barriers that deter plaintiffs and
their counsel from bringing human rights cases in the UK
In The Spotlight Getting it Wrong: Total, the Yadana Gas Pipeline, and a CSR Misadventure in Burma
A book released this week, Getting it
Right: Making Corporate–Community Relations Work (Greenleaf Publishing) by
Mary Anderson and Luc Zandvliet of CDA Collaborative Learning Project (CDA), is
intended as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) guide for corporate
managers of multinational companies operating in poor, unstable countries. It
is based on CDAs experience working primarily for extractive companies
operating in the developing world, including working with the French oil giant
Total on the notorious Yadana gas project in Burma. EarthRights International
(ERI) is concerned this publication, along with the numerous reports CDA has
published on the Yadana pipeline in Burma, have mislead investors,
corporations, policymakers, and other interested parties on the actual
conditions in the pipeline region. A Summer 2009 forthcoming report by ERI, based
on over 15 years of ERI’s work in the Yadana pipeline area, will expose CDA’s
flawed methodology, inaccurate reporting, and the misuse of their findings by
the Yadana companies in an effort to justify their continued presence in Burma.
New York, June 8, 2009 — The parties in Wiwa v. Shell have agreed to settle human rights claims charging the Royal Dutch/Shell company, its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC or Shell Nigeria), and the former head of its Nigerian operation, Brian Anderson, with complicity in the torture, killing, and other abuses of Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa and other non-violent Nigerian activists in the mid-1990s in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. (
